Comedy Writing Draft

For those of you confused with the stories you were to have read for homework, here's a bit of an explanation.

• The Scrolls: A few years before the book was published, the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered. In the early 70’s this sort of thing caused a lot of controversy between religious scholars and scientists. They wondered if these scrolls were part of the Bible. Allen is also Jewish, so the humor relates to this fact as well.
• Lovborg’s Women Considered: The playwright Henrick Ibsen is the bane and love of many literary scholars and theatre students. Woody Allen is poking fun of the field of literary criticism (scholars who write about books, authors, and their “private” lives).
• The Whore of Mensa: Allen is parodying the hardboiled detective novel made popular by writers like Dashielle Hammett (The Maltese Falcon). Think of Humphrey Bogart as the narrator and you’ll have the idea. Mensa is a national program/club – entry into which is based on I.Q. The idea then of whores who intellectually stimulate their johns is a very funny idea.

Today in the lab, choose one of these activities:

1. Write a draft of a comic story for your portfolio (this is required, but you may opt to do this at home if you wish. Length and subject matter is up to you.) Use the comic techniques discussed last class to create a parody or funny story. Hint: choose a non-fiction format of writing and lampoon or make fun of it. For example: write fictional funny cookbook entries, a zany how to manual, a zombies guide to dating, a review of a fictional author who is similar to Charles Dickens, etc.
2. Read the homework (pages 107-127)
3. Study for the test on Thursday
4. Workshop your fiction with a friend.
5. Revise one of your drafts (a requirement for the portfolio)
6. Prepare your portfolio

HOMEWORK: See post below.